Tamale West Hospital turned into a dumping ground for babies abandoned by ‘irresponsible’ nursing mothers
The Tamale West Hospital has been turned into a dumping ground for babies brought there by some irresponsible nursing mothers, according to hospital officials. The hospital has already recorded three cases of babies abandoned so far this year, officials said.
Nursing mothers usually choose a time when hospital authorities are less vigilant to abandon their babies under terrible conditions; harsh weather, insects and reptiles. No reason has been assigned for this behavior but the assumption is that the hospital is an ideal place to leave babies.
The hospital, in the first week of October this year, found a day-old baby girl wrapped in rags behind the eye clinic.
A patient who went out to spit at about 12 a.m. alerted nurses on duty about the bizarre incident. On Tuesday at about 3 a.m. local time, another baby girl was discovered behind the female ward of the hospital.
The first case of an abandoned baby was a three-month old baby girl earlier this year. Fortunately, the mother was identified as a mentally challenged woman who gave birth in Accra and brought the baby to the Tamale to live with a sister.
The woman, according to nurses, went out with the baby and when she returned without the baby, her sister quizzed her about the whereabouts of the baby. She responded that abandoned the baby the West hospital where she had gone to see someone. Strangely, all the abandoned babies are girls.
Hospital authorities are yet to come to terms with the phenomenon which is increasingly becoming a worry to management. When Zaa News contacted the Public health nurse in the hospital, Hajia Ayishetu Issifu Adjei, who has been sending the found babies to Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit of the Ghana Police Service(DOVVSU), she suspected that kayayee returnees and teenagers are behind the dumping of babies at their facility.
According to Hajia Adjei, her two encounters with teenagers who were pregnant, gives her ample reason to believe that they are responsible. “I came into contact with two girls, one was lucky I picked her up and sent her to an orphanage home at Sang in the Mion district, but the other, who was a junior high school girl was not lucky,” Hajia Adjei said, adding that the two were JHS girls who had apparently been proposed to by men and ended up getting pregnant and not being aware of it.
Hajia Adjei told Zaa News that one of the girls was pregnant for good eight months and was not aware of her situation until she visited the hospital for a check up. After being told by nurses that she was pregnant, she tried to abort the baby but was warned that she could lose her life if she went ahead with the procedure.
Poor security system
Even though there are visible uniformed security men at the facility, Hajia Adjei said the security system was very poor. “Security is loose. Our security men are not properly trained.” Hajia Adjei lamented.
She told Zaa News that she will propose to management to purchase CCTV cameras to arrest the situation. “The security at the facility only focuses on clients’ motor bikes and reminding clients of visiting hours but not on criminal activities that may occur,” she continued.